Not only do we focus on kindness at my school, but every month we have a successful learner trait that we focus on. Last month I was looking for some "Caught You Being Kind" tickets for our acknowledgement program, and came across the idea of compliment tickets on a page for tools to use with the book, "Wonder". In the past our focus was about "catching others being kind", but I liked how compliment tickets did the same thing, and further developed a valuable skill that is not often taught.
There are many resources out there for teaching how to give and receive compliments. I compiled many of the ideas and created some free printables for educators to use. You can find them under my Free Worksheets tab.
The criteria in all of the resources I have found, and what we developed as a staff, is they need to be positive, truthful, specific, and focus on strengths, character traits, or talents.
Compliments are a valuable social-emotional tool to teach our students. They help promote a positive school and classroom culture, and teach us to be appreciative of the things others do.
